So the day has come. Several of the alleged conspirators in the Great Football Swindle have arrived at the High Court in Edinburgh to face their charges.
It will be four years next week since I first asserted that Rangers would be liquidated, with all of the consequences that would entail. For the last two years I’ve tried to stay away from the subject and to concentrate on the matters which brought us together in the first place, but this issue deserves coverage.
In 2012 the illegal Discounted Options Scheme and Employee Benefit Trusts (only some of which are still subject to appeal) put HMRC in a position to demand payment, and subsequently reject administrators’ attempts to agree a CVA. Thank you, Sir David.
Charles Green must be a great poker player. He raised enough seed capital to buy the rights to pay £5.5 for Rangers assets in liquidation. From that moment, we thought one of two things would happen:
Green would pull Newco together and within a few years things would look like the old days.
Or, Green would be undermined by those he out-manoeuvred, leading to a likely insolvency for Newco.
There were suggestions early on that Green and Whyte were acting in concert, but, as someone with more experience than I have on matters like this pointed out to me, to be convicted for this type of crime you need to take a billboard advert out explaining your misdemeanours, it’s so difficult to prosecute. Or you need to be very stupid and fall out with your co-conspirators.
Stupidity is alive and well.
Green’s claim for legal fees against RIFC will have a profound impact on the club’s finances within weeks, but the bigger issue at hand is what happens at the outcome of the various criminal charges relating to the disposal and acquisition of the assets of Rangers Football Club, now in liquidation.
If it is proven that the assets were acquired criminally, the transaction is likely to be struck down, meaning the club currently trading as Rangers would lose ownership of whatever assets they have, including stadium and the name “Rangers”, irrespective of who actually controls those assets.
I’ve discussed this matter with many well-informed people and no one actually knows how it will play out, or what the consequences of guilty verdicts would be. The only thing that is known for sure is that outcomes are currently indeterminate, cannot be planned for, and contingencies cannot be made.
The club itself has to get on with business as best it can until whatever happens, happens, but no one should believe that a Duff and Phelps-type liquidation-bounce is normal, or remotely possible again. Assets could be hamstrung for years and left derelict.
Back in 2012 I said the only way forward with any certainty is to start with a clean sheet. Find a tiny club on the brink (there are enough of them), change their name, give them blue shirts, ask St Mirren or Partick Thistle to ground-share, and build your way up the leagues. Let the courts take their course and bid for the assets you want when the dust settles.
But that’s not going to happen. It would require more strategic thinking than is possible right now. My guess is they’re finished. Finished.
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Philbhoy- he is flourishing at Southport.
In 2010 after his debut season young Josh was voted Celtic’s ‘Young Player of the Year’
I’m sorry I missed the ole Hootenanny; it was a difficult choice between visiting my daughter in France and listenin’ to several solid hours of the ole p1sh stained drivel ;/)
Did someone say derek mcinnes was in india.
Philbhoy
Southport……… via Rochdale via Peterborough via Chesterfield via Portsmouth via Tranmere via Colchester
thankmelater csc
How about “judas” for shortest name. – it was shortened further still in my household!
BSR
He can always say he wore the Hoops.
45 years ago I sprained my ankle with my Cuban heel Chelsea boots, swelled up right away, never went to a doctor or hospital, to this very day I can go over on it, stupid Bhoy, I was. Oh aye, an a ripped my bell bottoms as well, sad day that.
I thought when we signed the Chinese guy we had finally moved away from the ol Scottish nonsense of not signing guys because they were Du Wei
Ole TD67 in the Summer of Love
Philbhoy
Just like wee Venezuelan legend Fernando de Ornelas.
“I’m going to put my neck on the line here and say, I think Charles Green and McCoist will lead Rangers to european glory in time!”
Darrell King 15/10/12
Ohhhh if only PL was good at everything we all , yes each and every one of us want and wish for, we all want different things, why doesent he know this, and give each and every one of us what we ask for, there is only one guy I’v heard of who can do that, he’s been gone for a while and said he will come back, so until then we have to suffer this chancer PL.
BSR
I had to google him!
I have no memory of him at CP.
Old age doesn’t come alone.
And today’s blog was sailing along really quite nicely.
No wonder people are blogging off.
The TD GIRUY lurking hun wig
Philbhoy- and yet wee Fernando de O speaks very highly of you.
You clearly made a great impression on the young Venezuelan- did he catch a glimpse of your caracas?
Dontbrattbakkinanger
Yi know what, cept for the Afro (I didn’t like them) yer bang on, back then up the Elizabethan, The Maryland, the Scene club, The Outback, Geordies Byre , I was known as snake hips Donnelly,
Step aside guys a need some room :)
Met him once I was a young boy, lovely gentle spoken man.
On this day in 1937 the great Garngad legend James McGrory fromerly of St Roch’s played his final match for Celtic, a true legend of the game
Finished – in Scotland? Absolutely no chance. They are and always will be the Establishment club of choice in this Country. Secret Handshakes, Edinburgh Juries, Lord Nimmo Smith etc. They’ve even put the Tax Man in their place – and thats a very difficult thing to accomplish unless you have friends in very very high places.
Regarding the etims article I think most of it is fair enough but I’m not sure I agree with the ‘peter is blameless it was aw Ronny’s fault’ (I’m paraphrasing) line regarding this seasons cl exit.
Individual errors more than tactics cost us Imo.
Deneyer, Berget and the Scottish lads are possibly the only players Ronny had much input about.
HH
The word “Finished”could be taken many ways.If anyone on here ever really believed that the Hun support in this country would have let their team sink into oblivion,then its you that is way off track.Exactly what the Spivs,Conmen,Shysters were depending on.They all new that something had to take the place of the club that died,and did they not milk them for every penny possible?.What we have left is a hologram.It looks like them,it acts like them,it plays in the same stadium,but as we all know,it is not them,and for the very foreseeable future,will never be anywhere near what they once were.In fact they will never be.
No credit facilities,no bank financing them,no listing on the Stock Market,the last never going to happen while this trial is in progress.Not enough income to see them halfway through a season.A Stadium needing millions spent on it.No infrastructure.A board in place who do not have the finances to alter anything.
Around £10 million in debt with no way of even paying that back.
As for the “Establishment”that will protect them.It was they who brought them down.Its the Police investigation that brought the 7 to trial.This trial that will rob them of even the faintest glimmer of salvation,in a share offer.
As Paul says,and I agree with him,they are finished.Finished as we once knew them.If Chuckles gets his legal fees awarded in November,there will be no way back for them as any kind of challenge to us for a very long time.This trial has hamstrung them.
Rock Tree Bhoy on 16th October 2015 2:31 pm
Would that be the same “Taxman”that liquidated them?.
Turkeybhoy @ 2.38
Top post
That’s the kind of blog that causes a tingle in Clumpany Towers!
“Finished” is a very strong word and I can’t believe we won’t still end up having a ‘Rangers*’ of some sort in senior football, even if Sevco collapses completely. The SFA and SPFL place too high a premium on that tainted brand to allow it to disappear.
And remember Stewart Regan’s “social unrest” comment when Rangers went to the wall? I suspect there could be external pressure on the football authorities to ensure the folk who follow ‘Rangers*’ continue to have a ‘club’ to support.
And no doubt we will be told that it’s the ‘same Rangers*’ again by the media. Hopefully fans will stand firm and together again in the face of any attempted shenanigans by the SFA and League. If Sevco goes the way of Rangers, a new entity has to go through a proper admissions process, and (if successful) start at the bottom.
All this assumes (of course) that Sevco goes under. A war chest from King might yet save the day.
And it also assumes that any legal action in the coming months and years doesn’t simply make it difficult/impossible to field a team called ‘Rangers*’ playing in light blue.
Jim Traynor once spoke of a “Day of Reckoning”. Is it now upon Sevco?
Here are some further thoughts:
https://theclumpany.wordpress.com/2015/10/16/a-day-of-reckoning/
Enjoy the rest of the day.
Leigh Griffiths at Celtic: 72 games, 48 starts, 39 goals, 14 assists. Averaging an assist or goal nearly every 80 minutes played.
Celtic have managed 2 wins on their last 5 visits to Fir Park (Won 2, Drawn 1, Lost 2).
Must do better csc
Finished … I assume you mean sevco are finished Paul as rangers died in 2012
But we all know that even if sevco are liquidated too another phoenix will ruse from the putrid Ashes
However They will be no challenge to the bigger clubs in Scotland and lucky if they ever play Europa league football
Will it be Rangers the turd.
Sorry I meant third.
Eh no I didn’t .
I see the ole humour quotient is on the rise as we approach the next Celtic Game:))
Mon The Hoops
Churlish not to wish many happy returns to hoopslegend Derk ‘ Iron Man’ Boerrigter.
Fingers crossed he doesn’t rupture himself blowin’ out his 28 candles.
Tinytim, I believe it was Sno.
I can see a really open game tomorrow.I think Well like to go forward,as we witnessed against the Huns,and Mark Mc Ghee will think our defence is our weak spot at the moment.
No problem.A wee draw up in the “Jaggy bits”of Scotland tonight,and we will be top of the league tomorrow.
“You aint seen me,right”
So far wee Jozo Simunovic is doin’ his best to make ole Derk look like Sean Fallon.
CHAIRBHOY on 16TH OCTOBER 2015 1:11 PM
We’ll Paul67,
But finished. Finished!
Seems so final…
What if they do the smart thing* and start a new, new Rangers from scratch.
Of course with no property and the aul IP tussle and “I’ve bought the history” blarney may not hold much water, I’m sure a Glasgow Rangers III, would be given all possible assistance from the fitbaw authorities.
Nice sentiment though…
—————————————————————–
the scene from braveheart, the lords murray, glibbness, and the chariot maker park, squabblling round the big table, waving ancient documents claiming a long lineage to Scotia herself.
a shadowy figure emerges from side, as handsome as any leper for he is a real ranjurs man, from a crooked mouth he announces
” here is ra deeds, that bastard green sold the park to Mike Ashley”
dontjivebakkinanger
BSR- that rumba is a definite 10
dbbia/craigrevellhorwoodCSC
you wont be laughing when magic hat warburton wins the big cup three seasons from now.
the big cup being the LADY DARLING consolation cup.
Celtic’s majority shareholder, Dermot Desmond, believes his club and their Glasgow rivals Rangers will be playing in the English Premier League in the next 10 years.
English clubs voted against that proposal in 2009 but the Irish businessman Desmond, who once held a stake in Manchester United, thinks it is an “inevitable” outcome eventually.
“We the Old Firm would like to compete in the holy grail in England,” he told Sky Sports on Wednesday. “It will bring money into Scotland and rekindle football in Scotland having [Manchester] United, Arsenal and others. Maybe it’s going to be 10 years but I think it’s inevitable that Rangers 1st> and Celtic 2nd are among the top 10 teams in Britain and some of the biggest teams in the world and they should be competing at the highest level. I think it’s inevitable there will be changes.”
At the time of the 2009 vote, the Premier League chief executive, Richard Scudamore, said: “It’s a non-starter. So we’ve made a clear and unequivocal statement and we’re going to move on from there. No means no.”
Desmond predicted that a change in broadcasting deals would clear the way for Scottish clubs to join the Premier League.
“In Italy and in Spain you have the bigger clubs like Barcelona and Real Madrid who negotiate their own football contracts, because they are more advantageous to them,” he said in a separate interview with STV.
“I think that will happen in the UK with Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal and then I think they will institute a change in the structure of the league.”
Celtic’s manager, Ronny Deila, added his support to Desmond’s at a news conference before Thursday’s Europa League game against Fenerbahce.
“It’s not easy to do things very quickly in Britain – it takes time,” he said. “But Celtic is a team that should have the opportunity to play in the best league and hopefully in the end we can get into the [English] Premiership or a league that is more of a British thing.”
There has been resistance from English clubs concerned that introducing two new teams at the top level would mean others having to drop lower down.
Jozo is keeping the Efe bashers on there toes.